The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to nutrition and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for predicting a response of a subject to one or more foods.
The prevalence of obesity in adults, children and adolescents has increased rapidly over the past 30 years and continues to rise. Obesity is classically defined based on the percentage of body fat or, more recently, the body mass index (BMI), defined as the ratio of weight (Kg) divided by height (in meters) squared.
Overweight and obesity are associated with increasing the risk of developing many chronic diseases of aging. Such co-morbidities include type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary heart diseases and dyslipidemia, gallstones and cholecystectomy, osteoarthritis, cancer (of the breast, colon, endometrial, prostate, and gallbladder), and sleep apnea. It is recognized that the key to reducing the severity of the diseases is to lose weight effectively. Although about 30 to 40% claim to be trying to lose weight or maintain lost weight, current therapies appear not to be working. Besides dietary manipulation, pharmacological management and in extreme cases, surgery, are sanctioned adjunctive therapies to treat overweight and obese patients. Drugs have side effects, and surgery, although effective, is a drastic measure and reserved for morbidly obese.
Morris et al. [“Identification of Differential Responses to an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in Healthy Adults,” 2013, PLoS ONE 8(8): e72890] identified differential responders to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Four distinct metabolic responses to the OGTT were found and were characterized by different levels of BMI, body fat and maximal oxygen consumption.
International Publication No. WO2002100266 discloses a dietary technique which employs a database of reference human factors. A computer receives user data on the human factors and predicts a selected characteristic of blood of the user dependent upon user data and measured blood characteristics, to generate a prediction model. The prediction model is then interrogated to generate and display a predicted blood characteristic dependent upon input human factor data. Also disclosed is the use of a database which includes a prediction model on a selected blood characteristic as a function of a human factor.
International Publication No. WO2006079124 discloses characterization of foodstuffs and/or exercise in terms of units of energy, in which the quantity of energy in linear units that is associated with an ingested foodstuff is directly proportional to the resultant blood sugar absorbed into the blood of a Type 1 diabetic. Also disclosed is characterization of exercise in terms of linear units, such that the quantity of energy in linear units that is expended by a person during exercise, is directly proportional to the resultant decrease in their blood sugar level.